


The Drone Advantage

by unholygrass



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Apathy, Badass Pidge, Capture, Emotional pain, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Murder, PTSD, Rage, Suspense, Violence, beatings, drones, escape fic, galra - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 02:12:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11613768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unholygrass/pseuds/unholygrass
Summary: But the picture she had most clearly in her mind was the one in which she was forced to watch as some faceless Galrans beat Hunk with their guns until he stopped twitching on the floor, and how Keith had screamed so hard that no sound came out when Lance was shot point blank by one of the Galran's blasters, then tossed into a room to bleed from his stomach until he died, or how Shiro fought with the desperation of a man gone mad- or, as Pidge couldn't help but assume, with the desperation of a man who had already seen the horrors that awaited them in the Galran prison.orTeam Voltron is captured by a Galra prison ship. Pidge orchestrates an escape with the aid of forty drones.





	The Drone Advantage

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written as a part of the Voltron Gen Mini Bang on tumblr- I was partnered with Plumppushu and together we put together this fic and art piece. It was a joy to write and work with such a talented artist, and I am excited to share it with you! Check out her log for more amazing work @ Pumpushu and feel free to follow mine too at Pidgeaggedon.

Waking up from a trauma induced sleep would forever be on Pidge's list of Ten Most Frustrating Sensations in the World, right up there with an Impending Sneeze and the insufferable itching of a mosquito bite. Waking up when she had been forced to fall unconscious usually came with a barrage of questions and uncertainties that would nag at her until she was completely sure that she and her team were safe and unharmed.

 

Except waking up now seemed impossible- largely due to the fact that she could see nothing but pure blackness.

 

She was fairly certain that she was awake and ready to be up and running, but without her sight she couldn't be sure if she was awake or still dreaming. She felt like she was swimming in a hot tub, but there were weights tied on her limbs and preventing her from trying to surface to where she could finally wake up and _do_ something- She feels as though she floats there for minutes or hours or days, pulled down but not drowning, not yet-

 

And then all at once someone reaches into her consciousness and yanks her up by her hair, jolting her back and forth roughly as though they were trying to shake her until her brain came oozing out of her ears.

 

Thankfully the shaking stopped before she barfed, and she was able to recognize enough purple lights through her blurred vision to grasp that she was probably in some sort of Galran establishment.

 

“Got it. Sucker really didn't want to come off.” The soldier looming above her was obviously unaware that his captive was vaguely awake and already planning his demise. In his hand he held her battered helmet, lit up from the inside where the communication lines were still activated.

 

The last time she had awoken from a forced unconsciousness, she had been foggy and confused about the events that led up to her blacking out. This time however, she had retained her memory quite well, and she was fully aware of what had led her to be stuck in the situation she was now finding herself in.

 

She could remember the mission, and the allies, and the betrayal of the Renio people. She could remember flying towards the Galran ship, her entire team aboard Green. She could remember almost immediately falling into a trap.

 

Pidge could remember screaming in sheer horror as Green was torn open by a rail gun, falling to the floor, weak at the knees as though the weapon had burned a hole in her own stomach, rather than her lion's. They were so well connected through their mindspace that they tended to share sensations- and this was an agony that she had never imagined.

 

She remembered Shiro snatching her off the ground and holding her up, and the others scrambling to contact the castle- to _get them out of there-_

 

But the picture she had most clearly in her mind was the one in which she was forced to watch as some faceless Galrans beat Hunk with their guns until he stopped twitching on the floor, and how Keith had screamed so hard that no sound came out when Lance was shot point blank by one of the Galran's blasters, then tossed into a room to bleed from his stomach until he died, or how Shiro fought with the desperation of a man gone mad- or, as Pidge couldn't help but assume, with the desperation of a man who had already seen the horrors that awaited them in the Galran prison.

 

Flashes of her tortured friends played out over and over in her mind, and she briefly lost focus of her surroundings and what the soldiers around her were doing.

 

Her attention was brought back to the room in front of her by the heavy boot to her rib cage, and she was flipped onto her back to stare at the ceiling while at least two guards bustled around her.

 

She presumed that she was being watched and likely recorded, and when she spotted a shinning camera in the corner her suspicions were confirmed.

 

In fact, she would bet a batch of peanut butter cookies that the entire ship was under very heavy observation- something she could most certainly use to her advantage. On the way flying towards the ship, Hunk had informed them all that the ship was a Class X, a Galran ship designed for the harboring of prisoners that needed specially designed holding facilities. And while not all Class X ships had the same layout due to strategic reasons, Pidge had experience with these kinds of ships and had a very good understanding of where she would be most likely to find her lion and fellow paladins.

 

And if her memory from when they were captured served her right, she was probably most fit to start an escape. She had most of her mental facilities- something she couldn't say about Shiro right now. She didn't even let her brain consider the psychological agony her leader was probably experiencing, being back in his place of capture and having the distinct knowledge that his team was about to experience the same torture he had been subjected to all those months ago.

 

She would have to get to him early on- give his brain a task- maybe they wouldn't lose him again.

 

They couldn't lose him again.

 

Also, she was probably one of the most physically fit of their team currently. Lance had been shot- and while their suits could take a number of blasts without too much damage, he had been shot point blank- something that had never happened before to any of the paladins. Pidge wasn't sure if their suits could withstand that kind of force, and made note that he was most likely in no shape to bust out of his cell without help. Hunk had been treated with a particular amount of brutality, and Pidge felt liquid fire begin to slip into her veins as she remembered him unconscious on the floor.

 

She hadn't seen what had become of Keith, and decided she would probably have to go to him first. If they were going to escape, and Lance and Hunk both needed carrying, she wouldn't be able to do much without another pair of hands to help her.

 

With a loose goal in mind, Pidge decided it was time for her to get started on their escape.

 

The soldiers around her seemed to be preparing for something, and their casual pace and demeanor led her to believe that they weren't counting on her being a threat. Probably from the fact that she was awake but still just laying on the ground. Her fingers itched for her bayard, but she knew better than to reach for it. They would have already have taken it from her.

 

That was fine. She didn't even need to take out the soldiers. All she really needed to do was to out-maneuver them. The door was to her left, fitted with the normal scanning pad that required a hand. After being locked out of things far too many times as a team, she had designed a holograph in each paladin suit that rested flat against their palms and recreated the heat and DNA signature required to open the doors. She was quite proud of it, and it seemed that it would come in handy now more than ever.

 

The doors took a moment to scan though, so a little combat was still in order.

 

Not that she minded.

 

She waited until she was positive what her moves where going to be, then she sprung up from her spot on the ground and snatched the arm of one soldier and ripped it behind his back fast enough that she heard it pop like she had been taught to do. By then the other soldier was already launching himself towards her, and she used all of her body weight to throw the incapacitated Galran forward, which knocked both of her opponents to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs. She was at the door by the time they began to pick themselves up, and through the door and safe on the other side before they had a chance to grab her. She entered the code to lock the door before she even realized what she was doing, and was vaguely impressed that she still even remembered it.

 

She collapsed against the back of the cell door, chest heaving while her brain flooded with adrenaline. She did not have time to assess herself. She needed to deactivate any source of communication that the guards in her cell might have had, that way they couldn't blow the whistle on her before she even got started. She hefted herself up and glanced around, finding herself in a small observation room with several screens lining the wall in front of several switch boards. She took a moment to dig into their system before finding a command that would block any signals from exiting her cell, effectively insuring that the trapped guards would not be turning her in.

 

After checking security feeds of the surrounding hallways and comm lines, she finally assured herself that the two Galrans she had already trapped were the only two who could cause her any kind of trouble. She was alone were she was in the ship, and only a few passing drones buzzed by to make sure the hallways where clear. Hidden in the observation room as she was, they would be no problem to her.

 

She was safe for the moment.

 

She willed her hands to stop shaking as she tried to enter commands into the computer, but found her efforts were fruitless. She did not realize that it hurt to breathe until she had finally managed to access the camera feeds for her wing of the ship.

 

She sat back from the switch board and sucked in a deep breath, trying not to bite through her lip when white hot pain laced through her chest and crackled down her spine. She must have really busted up her ribcage. And maybe her head too. Her thoughts weren't flowing together the way they were supposed to, and the edges of her vision where tainted a faint white.

 

She had a very high pain tolerance, but she would have to be careful not to pass out or injure herself to the point that she couldn't coordinate her team's escape. Being selfless only got you so far when everyone was relying on you not to collapse.

 

She briefly recalled a conversation with Coran when he had taught her that by sharing experiences with her lion, she could use the focus of two beings instead of just herself. If she could contact Green, perhaps her lion could help her stay on task and not get distracted by pain or fear.

 

Except she was actually afraid to contact Green at all. The last time she had any contact with her beloved lion, Green had a hole blown through her and had stopped buzzing in her ears. Horror washed up her throat, hot like vomit as she pictured her lion taking such damage. She loved Green. She loved the way Green connected her to the world and widened her horizons. Green was always in the back of her mind reassuring her and giving her the strength and power she needed to be a paladin of Voltron.

 

And she had driven Green straight into a trap, and felt the way her lion's insides where twisted and destroyed by a gun that seemed to make black holes.

 

Green could be utterly dead and gone- and Pidge could just never know-

 

Before her frantic mind began spiraling down that dark path, a familiar rumble vibrated up her spinal column and set goosebumbs in her scalp. She recognized that sensation. Only Green's presence could effect her so. Her brain cleared some and she felt the white around her vision turn to a forest green, and the shaking of her hands lessened some. Her connection with her lion had been restored almost as soon as she had begun thinking about it. Voltron would forever amaze her.

 

Steadied and reassured, she took a deep breath and pushed it out through her nose.

 

They were in a bad spot, but they had gotten out of worse. She could do it. She could break them out.

 

She needed to contact the castle. Allura and Coran were probably aware that they had been captured, but there wasn't a whole lot the two of them could do. The castle was a very powerful ship, but it would not be able to take down a Class X ship all on its own, and Allura and Coran would not be able to rescue them all individually through stealth unless they managed to find more people to help. However, if Pidge could contact the castle and alert them of the situation, the castle would be able to provide distraction and extraction.

 

Except her helmet was in the cell.

 

She'd have to use someone else's. Once she got to another paladin, she'd have to contact the castle through their comms, because hers was otherwise occupied.

 

Plans changed, she leaned forward to computer again and began searching through the logs to find where her teammates ere being held, her IP masked by a code she had designed months ago, early into their travels across the universe.

 

Due to the activity on the circuit, she had a surprisingly easy time locating her friends.

 

Not that it made her feel any better.

 

Shiro was the first to pop up, due to the fact that he currently had nearly thirteen guards cultivating in his cell, and another three with orders to assist that had yet to enter that part of the ship. Assessing the cameras in his cell really wasn't a good idea- Pidge knew where he was, she didn't need to worry herself with anything else. And yet she finds herself unable to go on without seeing what they are doing to him.

 

So she pulls up the window and squints as violet light washes over her face. Shiro's cell is nothing but a blur of activity. Bodies are flashing from one side of the room to another at the speed of light, and the familiar sound of enraged battle fills the room. Pidge catches glimpses of Shiro's arm, activated and angry, and she can't help the way her throat tightens as she realizes what he's doing.

 

The Galran's had managed to capture him, but they had yet to secure him. He was fighting them with a madness that Pidge had never before seen. No amount of manpower was going to hold him down, and every guard they send into his cell is immobilized before they can make any progress on sedating him.

 

She watches as a command arrives through text to a dialogue box, ordering that all guards evacuate Shiro's room and that the room be gassed. She deletes the message remotely and orders the guards to leave him be in the room alone. She downloads a map to his room from her location, and makes a promise to see him soon.

 

Hunk's cell is only three down from Shiro's, and when she looks inside through the camera's eyes, she feels a feral rage wash up on her so fast and unexpectedly that it makes her dizzy.

 

Hunk is propped up in the corner of the room, head slumped on his broad shoulders and body motionless. He was alone in the cell, but the lights inside were so bright that she had to reduce the brightness of her own screen to properly see what the room even held. He was black and blue, and every thing about him looked bruised and exhausted. She couldn't even tell if he was conscious.

 

She added his location, and moved onto Lance and Keith.

 

Keith was pacing his cell, hands roaming the walls as though he might find a secret hole he could squeeze through, and every single bit of his body language screamed of a trapped animal. He was the only one who she'd seen to still have his helmet, and she wasn't sure if that was good or bad. They hadn't been in there to remove it, but he didn't seem to be talking either, so she had to assume that he was was unable to contact the castle even with his helmet. She hadn't originally thought they were using transmit blockers, but now she was forced to consider that as an option.

 

She finally found Lance, and she had to take a moment to turn away from the screen.

 

He had been tossed in the cell like a broken doll, laying in a thin puddle of blood that looked sickeningly dark through the Galran's screens. He was dying.

 

She took a deep breath and forced herself to think with logic instead of emotion.

 

Hunk and Lance would not be able to walk out on their owns. She would have to free Shiro and Keith first, and those two would have to help her free the others. The ship was using transmit blockers which she would have to dig a hole into in order to contact the castle for extraction. Green was nearby, injured, but online. They'd have to get to Green, and launch to where the castle could wait to wormhole them away.

 

Easy, right?

 

She now knew where all of her friends were, but she would not be able to control and monitor the cameras and guards' movements without a control panel, which she would have to leave in order to access the others' cells.

 

She'd have to stealth through to them. She'd done it before with Shiro and Keith, and while she had never done it on her own before, she supposed she now didn't have a choice.

 

She pushed away from the circuit board and took one last glimpse into her cell to make sure that her guards were not going to free themselves, then stood and finally remembered her bayard.

 

It was not in the cell, but after a little digging through the room, she found it locked in a trolley that was supposed to be transferred to the ship's armory, but had yet to be moved. She wrapped her fingers around it tightly and relished in its familiar weight, a comforting reminder that she could take care of herself, and that no matter what, she was not totally defenseless.

 

A deep rumble fluttered across her collarbone and she closed her eyes and let herself connect once again with her lion. Their connection made her senses more potent and her reactions more keen. It was a tool that the paladins had finally begun to utilize, and she loved it. She was more confident to take on foes twice her size when her brain was humming with the wild energy of an extraterrestrial predator.

 

Calmed some, she looked at her map once more, then slipped out the door. If she had Allura's shape shifting abilities, this would be a piece of cake. As it was however, if she was spotted, she would stick out like a sore thumb and be detained immediately.

 

She likes to think that she's gotten pretty far before she runs into trouble, but in truth she only makes it down about five hallways before her stealth is revealed and she nearly runs head on into a drone.

 

It lights up and freezes as soon as it spies her, and the camera on the front of it hones in on her face within seconds. She throws up her arm to shield herself when it fires a laser at her, and lunges forward beneath it. She swipes blindly above her with her bayard, and slices the thing in half from its belly up. She winces at it clatters to the ground, and can holy hope that she acted fast enough that it did not have time to send out the alert of coming in contact with a foreign DNA.

 

A few moments later when all of the lights surrounding her turn from purple to a sinister red, she knows that she's been found. The sound of thundering boots seems to come from all directions, so she decides to stick to the original course and sprint as fast as her legs will carry her. Each way she turns the lights are blinking wildly, and a horn so loud she nearly trips herself starts up through the hall's speakers.

Running is an agony that she is not prepared for. She's busted her ribs before, but usually she had them healed in the chambers on the ship within a few hours. Each breath felt as though someone was stabbing her through the chest with a dull knife, and were she not so hyped on adrenaline, she would have realized that the pain in her head was not from the concussion, but rather from a lack of air.

 

She is so fucked.

 

There are no guards blocking her path yet, but she can hear several chasing her down from behind, and doors have slammed down and locked on several of the adjacent halls that she runs by. She wouldn't be able to fight off an army like Shiro. Not on her own. They would chase her to wherever they wanted and then lock her down. She needed a plan-

 

Three drones appear seemingly out of thin air, and she goes skidding beneath them with just enough time that when they fire, they kill two sentries that were behind her.

 

And now she has a plan.

 

She weaves in and out of halls and stays in the camera's blind spots until she's lost a reasonable amount of guards. Her erratic running has left them spinning in circles and each time she looks back, fewer and fewer sentries have been cut off by more closing doors or lost at random turns.

 

She stops dead in the hall she's in and draws her bayard, pleased to see that their chase has left her with only three foes left, a much more manageable number. Electrocuting them until they twitch mindlessly on the floor is almost too easy, but she's not going to push her luck. She double checked that she was hidden from the cameras and knelt quickly on the floor, bringing up her arm and activating a holopanel that she could work from. She wouldn't have time to find another computer, so she'd have to hack their systems from her suit.

 

Thankfully, hacking into the Galrans' drones was easy, and she'd done it dozens of times.

 

She keeps an eye on her surroundings so she isn't ambushed, but she focuses mainly on drawing as many of the activated drones to her position as possible. She erased their computer signature and replaced them with her own, a devious smile twitching on her face as she came to realize that with this technique, she would have over twenty drones converging at her location, all controlled by her. They had a very simple adjective: protect her and each member of team Voltron. Twenty would follow her as she went to pick up her teammates, and another fifteen would converge at her friend's locations and keep them safe until she could get to them.

 

It wasn't one of her most cunning plans, but it would definitely be one with the most fire power.

 

She emerged from her hiding spot to find seven drones already waiting for her, and when she stood they flanked her forward and backwards, providing her with almost complete coverage should they get in a fire fight.

She had just started for Keith's cell once more when she felt a certain agony yank in her chest. It flooded her throat with panic and she felt her brain focus inward almost immediately. It was a side effect of being a member of Voltron. She was connects to the other Paladins mentally, along with their lions.

 

And this mental agony and panic was coming from Hunk. Something was very very wrong with him- he was dying or something- something was wrong-

 

Someone was hurting him, and causing him enough anguish that Green had reacted violently, thrashing around in their shared mindspace. She couldn't help, couldn't see what they were doing- but she could feel a liquid fire seeping through her skin and setting her stomach ablaze. A feral and protective sense that belonged to the Black lion was oozing over into Green, and Pidge could feel the rage inside her very bones.

 

They were killing her teammates.

 

They were killing her family.

 

The drones seemed to come to life around her, buzzing with a strange air of concern that Pidge would later understand to actually be an air of alertness. She could hear a round of guards coming, and decided she no longer cared to use stealth. Four more drones had met up with them, having come from different parts of the ship, and they circled her once before fitting in with the others and flanked her, eyes facing outward as they prepared to fire at any oncoming threats.

 

“Aim at center mass.” She says, her voice echoing off the metal walls of the ship. The drones hummed in response, their circuit boards clinking as their targeting settings changed at the command of her voice. She owned them now, and they would act accordingly.

 

She started towards Keith's cell, and hoped that he still had his bayard on him as well. Recovering bayards had proven to be a very difficult task (See: The Black Paladin) and she hoped he was alright.

 

Unsurprisingly, they reach more guards before they reach Keith, and instead of feeling dread or fear, she feels only excitement spark in her belly. She isn't a sadistic person, and she doesn't want to see any bloodshed, but she is a scientist, and she is currently testing her hypothesis of how useful the drones could really be for her. She was used to using only her size and smarts while battling the Galra- she was used to sneaking around and gathering information. She was not used to purposefully charging her enemies head on with weapons, but today that was exactly what she planned to do.

 

And she has to admit, when the drones start firing, something fierce in her bones lights up and sends her mind spinning.

 

Twenty four drones take out four guards without any hassle, and then they also clear the entry room to Keith's cell without issue as well. They've killed at least seven Galrans, and Pidge feels nothing for it.

 

Entering Keith's cell is a different experience all together. She orders her drones to wait outside as not to spook him, however as soon as she slips through the door, she's slammed against the wall with enough force that her head cracks against the metal, and the bright lights of the room overpower her senses momentarily. When her brain starts working again, she's swaying in Keith's arms, and his voice seems to echo off her skull.

 

“-fuck Pidge- I'm so sorry- I thought you were Galra- fuck, are you okay?”

 

“'M fine. It's okay.” She blinks a few times until the room stops spinning and she can finally make out the details on her friend's face. “Damn, you shove hard.”

 

“Yeah, well, I was trying to kill you.” He's looking at her as though he's murdered a puppy, and, she supposes, in his mind he probably has. He leans over her to look at the back of her head with possibly the most guilty expression she's ever seen.

 

“It's okay. I would have done the same thing.” She grins up in his face and does her best to ignore the renewed throbbing in her brain. “I am here to break you out. We're getting the fuck outta here.”

 

As expected, Keith has no objections.

 

Sending a message through the comms in Keith's helmet to the castle turns out to be impossible, but together they do manage to send a text message by combining the signals sent out by both of their suits together, creating a connection strong enough to overcome the transmit blockers of the ship. They won't be able to get a confirmation message back, but Pidge has enough trust in Allura and Coran that the two of them will be waiting once the Paladins board Green.

 

Luckily, they do find his bayard, and while the drones unsettle him, he appreciates their capabilities almost immediately when they are caught on a camera and swarmed by sentries. It takes them another ten minutes to make it to Shiro's cell, and this time Keith destroys the Galrans surrounding it before Pidge gets the chance to sic her drones on them. She has learned from her previous experience to announce to Shiro who they were before entering his cell, and she warned Keith of what she had seen on the cameras.

 

She uses her bayard to hack a hole in the door to Shiro's cell, and doesn't risk talking right away should she startle him. After realizing that she probably will anyway, she speaks.

 

“Shiro? It's Pidge and Keith. I'm going to open the door so you can come out. Don't attack okay?”

 

She pulls away from the door and listens for his response, fear caught in her throat that maybe he had already been lost to fear, and that he wasn't going to react as the Shiro she knew, but as the imprisoned pilot that had lived in horror for months.

 

She doesn't have to worry for long.

 

“Okay.”

 

Keith throws open the door with the desperation of someone who was sharing the same fears as her, and Shiro is standing in front of them a moment later.

 

Now, she's hugged Shiro before, but she was usually the one to initiate the hug. This time, Shiro scoops both her and Keith into his chest and holds them so tightly that she can't breathe, and she doesn't care. She presses her cheek more firmly against his chest so she can feel the way his heart thunders against it, and she knows that they are going to be alright.

 

She was no longer alone. She had all of her drones, Keith, and Shiro. She had part of her team with her. She was no longer single-handedly responsible.

 

They don't need the drones to get to Lance's cell. The three of them are not really being quiet- she's stumbling, Keith's more focused on her and Shiro than he is his surroundings, and Shiro is eyeing the walls as though they are going to lash out and grab him around the throat- and yet no one shows up to stop them. She hopes it's just luck.

 

That feeling of gratefulness doesn't stick around for long.

 

She stands guard over the hallway while Keith and Shiro enter Lance's cell to retrieve him, and it takes them an uncomfortable amount of time to rejoin her. When they do, she nearly vomits on the spot.

 

Lance is coated in blood from having been laying in his own puddle for who knew how many hours. The skin on his face was ashen and coated in fine layer of sweat. He was limp between Shiro and Keith, and he gave no signs of life.

 

Neither of the boys protested when she abandoned her post to get closer to him. She could see the way the laser had burned through his suit and blackened his skin to a crisp. Blood was still running down from his stomach to his legs, and when she reached up to press her fingers to his pulse she had to fight the lump in her throat.

 

She and Lance had gotten close over the months they had been on the ship together, and seeing him in pain and nearly dead was enough to set that fire alight in her belly all over again.

 

She hated the Galra. She hated everything they had done. They had nearly destroyed Shiro, they had kidnapped her brother and father, ruined her family, shot Lance- drug them out into space-

 

“We're leaving.” She announces, voice grating with anger and anguish.

 

She was going to kill each and every Galra that they came across. Every Galra she killed meant fewer that could come after her and her family and friends.

 

Green buzzed to life inside her at the thought. Her lion was a noble creature who valued all life, but who was also experiencing the same emotions she was. Green wanted blood too.

 

One look at Keith and she knew he was feeling the same thing.

 

Shiro gently took Lance's weight and cradled him into his arms. They didn't really need to talk about what the next step was, as they were all close enough to share the same ideas. Shiro would protect Lance while Pidge and Keith stormed the halls, with the drones flanking them as adding protection. They would get Hunk, then they would go to Green, and they would leave.

 

This time, when the lights in the hallway begin to flash red, she is ready for whatever battle is to come. She doesn't prepare herself to run. Instead she sets her shoulders back and brings her bayard to life, relishing in the hum that vibrates though her bones with her weapon. The anger was blocking out the agony in her chest and her head, replacing it with a white hot burn instead.

 

Four guards rush her and Keith, and she orders the drones to hang back and protect Shiro who had his hands full. She can hear the sound of Keith's sword striking home in a guard's neck when she uses hers to slice another's throat.

 

When they're done, she gazes down at the bodies and tries to feel sorry for it, but finds a concerning lack of empathy in its place.

 

They move on.

 

The drones keep trying to inch up closer to her, and at first she pushes them to stay back with Shiro, but after a little consideration, she lets them stay. Sure enough, they catch several more drones in a nearby hallway and force clone them. She gains two more drones in her arsenal.

 

“Damn Pidge. What did you do to these things?” Keith muttered out loud as he eyed their newest companions.

 

“They work for me now. Their only objectives are to protect us.”

 

She kills another two guards once they get into Hunk's cell. The two Galrans had been prodding him, trying to wake him up with some kind of syringe.

 

They don't get the chance to see the face of their killers.

 

Keith watches the door this time.

 

She kneels down beside Hunk, all the blood draining from her face as her eyes try to take in the state of her friend and experiences something she had never had happen before.

 

She feels Yellow.

 

It doubles her over on the spot, and she has to reach out and plant her palm against the cool metal wall to keep herself from collapsing on top of Hunk. The connections with the lions was always something that the human body was very unused to, and any kind of new sensation with them was amazing but physically draining.

 

“-idge? Hey, are you okay? Is it your head?” Shiro's concerned voice breaks through her fog, and she nods at him mutely.

 

“I'm okay. It's just- Yellow. I can feel her.”

 

Shiro seems to tighten his grip on Lance, and eyes Hunk fearfully. There had been very few occasions where the paladins had been able to sense a lion that wasn't their own, and usually the situation was very dire.

 

Pidge reached out and snatched Hunk's wrist, her fingers finding his thready pulse and letting it float through her mind until it reached both Green and Yellow. “He's alive. We'll keep him alive.”

 

Yellow's sorrow was tangible and felt like sour candy in her throat, but she let it fuel her need to get the fuck off the ship.

 

She squeezed Hunk's wrist tighter, then brought his large hand to her forehead, allowing herself a moment to focus on nothing but the heat that came with it. He was alive. Bloodied and bruised and struggling, but alive.

 

They were all alive.

 

She cannot rouse her friend, and she's not sure if she wants to. He deserved to remember none of this. If she could spare Hunk that horror, then she would.

 

And so she and Keith get him up, and they take his weight, and she doesn't complain about the pain. She loves them. She loves Shiro and Keith and Lance and Hunk and Allura and Coran. She had her team together, broken and unconscious but alive. She was going to her lion, and they would live.

 

She can feel Green calling to her with an energy that she felt she was born with, but she knew fully well was more celestial than it was homely. She can hear Shiro stumbling behind them with Lance, and she can feel the heat coming off of Hunk as she and Keith hold him between them. She ignores the blood dripping down her side and oozing down her neck from her head- whatever injuries they had all accumulated would not matter if they didn't get to Green in time.

 

So she ducked her head, and focused on the humming of her drones. None of them had easy access to their weapons- none of them except for her.

 

“Alter Objective- specify.” She speaks aloud, and to her credit neither Keith or Shiro try to question her.

 

“Protect Homo Sapiens' DNA.” She takes a breath to clear her head and fight off the roaring in her ears. “Fire at will. Aim for center mass.”

 

Like magic the drones hum more enthusiastically and rise slightly around the team until each one is stationed in a position to protect the paladins at vital places. They were at the mercy of Pidge's abilities and the drones' capabilities.

 

“No matter what, just get to Green.” Shiro orders behind her, and she takes refuge in the familiar aspect of doing as Shiro says.

 

So they leave their hiding spot, and while Pidge knows where Green is being held, she can't exactly check their location while helping Hunk and Keith, so she lets her lion tug at her soul and lead her through less conventional means. She makes a note at the back of her mind to thank Riker one more time for strengthening her connection with her lion. Without it, she is not sure that they would make it out.

 

This time, when the drones start shooting, she ducks her head and lets the rage fill her bones one last time. She cannot afford to start feeling guilty yet.

 

So she lets the heat of her friends surround her, and lets the firing lasers drown out the dying wails of Galrans shot dead. She focuses on the scent of sweat coming from Hunk and Keith, and not on the burnt flesh coming from her foes.

 

She ducks her head and listens to Green, handing her heart over to a war that had consumed her and her family long ago- and she tells herself that her and her team will heal- they have to.

 

They have to.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please review!


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